A Record of Tokyo’s Splendors

Is Tokyo really a place where wealth dazzles the eye?

The book Dream of Splendors in the Eastern Capital offers an authentic portrait of the customs and daily life of Tokyo, the Northern Song capital.

Most of its accounts describe Kaifeng, then known as Tokyo, during the reigns of Emperor Huizong from Chongning to Xuanhe (1102–1125). It depicts the everyday lives of everyone who lived in the city during this period, from princes and nobles to ordinary people, and is an important historical source for the study of urban society, daily life, economics, and culture in the Northern Song dynasty.